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I was out over the Thanksgiving weekend doing some shopping. Needless to say, I wasn’t in the best frame of mind. Quite frankly, my attitude needed an adjustment. Instead of enjoying the hustle and bustle of people out doing their thing, the company of my wife, or the beautiful, crisp, November weather, I complained to myself about why we were there. I’m certain my body language was poor and even more certain that I had the Grinch’s puss on my face.

And then we walked into an old country store and I saw a rustic framed quote from Charles Swindoll:

“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill. It will make or break a company … a church … a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude … I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me, and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you … we are in charge of our Attitudes.”

Wow! These were powerful words and they showed up for me to see, just in time. I’m certain my day would have degraded into something terrible and probably would have ended with a spat with my wife by the end.

Instead, I took charge of my attitude and changed my entire day.

I realized just how right Swindoll is. Every single day we have a choice. Happiness is a choice. Embrace a positive attitude and start the day differently than maybe what feels natural in that moment (like staying in your bad mood & being a Grinch through the holiday season).

As we head into the holiday season, there is no better time to choose your attitude. The stress will mount each day both in your personal and professional life as the year comes to an end. Recognize that life is going to happen, and we can’t stop it. Just reflect on what Chuck Swindoll teaches in his quote, 90% of life is HOW WE REACT. Let life happen, and make the conscious decision to be positive in reaction.

Choose a great attitude starting today & let’s finish the year strong!

I bet a lot of you don’t know why we call ourselves 9DOTS. This is especially relevant because we are changing that. 9DOTS is making sure that everyone accesses our website knows who we are and what we do. Additionally, 9DOTS made some changes that started THIS MONTH. As a matter of fact we will continue to make changes going forward because we love to listen to our clients, we think outside the Box, and we solve problems.

Starting June 1st 9DOTS’ social media presence is stronger, customer support improved, and finally a maintenance bulletin is on the website. As a company, we say we are “Decidedly Different.” For example, 9DOTS chooses not to be a vendor but most of all seek partnership. We are always straight forward, yet offer a hint of sarcasm. We are completely transparent in responses and due to our personality. 9DOTS recognized that the website seemed jumbled, blogs posted few and far between, and social media slacked. We are problem solvers, and that means we solve even our OWN problems.

Did you know 9DOTS is named after the answer to a puzzle? The Nine Dots Puzzle poses the challenge to connect nine dots using four straight lines or less. Don’t lift the pencil from the paper! Challenge yourself and start below.

9DOTS encourages unconventional thinking to generate decidedly different business intelligence strategies. We don’t just hand out software and tell companies to be on their way! Yes, 9DOTS uses Business Analytics to solve problems, but it’s the way we think that makes us stand out from the rest. There is a box filled with Business Intelligence companies. Creativity, dedication and 9DOTS sit outside of that box.

Some people start to solve the puzzle by drawing the pencil in a box shape. If that is you, then you aren’t the only one! The ANSWER though, is to think OUTSIDE of the box shape. Try to solve it! The answer is below.

To know more about how 9DOTS can solve your problems, contact us & Follow us below on FB, Twitter or LinkedIN to stay up to date on all of our info!

http://www.ixdots.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Blogging-challenge-solve-readers-problems.jpg448800Sam Floriohttp://www.ixdots.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/9DOTS-Logo.pngSam Florio2017-06-05 18:33:352017-06-07 15:58:48Do you know why we are called 9DOTS ?? We Solve Problems

2015 is coming to an end, and so has your budgeting season. If you have been reading along, or even if you haven’t, here are a few facts we learned through different surveys and research throughout the year.

A study by Grant Thorton, LLP shows that only 36% of businesses use scenarios and “what-if” analyses to re-check possible outcomes of a strategy.

A study by F1F showed that, out of 1,200 senior managers surveyed yielded stastics like “17% of large businesses suffered financial loss due to poor spreadsheets, and 78% say that key financial decisions are supported by spreadsheets.”

Companies spend weeks or even months completing the annual budgeting process, because it is so important. But too many companies fail to supplement the annual budget with planning activities that could strengthen performance management, gain competitive advantage, and of course drive profit!

Read our white paper to figure out how NOT to be a statistic in 2016, and instead stay ahead of the competition.

Everyone knows you have to properly manage the cash flow of your business to reap the benefits and rewards. But sometimes, it can be easier said than done. Instead of worrying about making the best decision and constantly “fighting the cash flow fires,” you should be using the unique ideas you have to advance your business to eliminate the possibility of a fire at all.

Inc.’s 10 Absolutely Must-Follow Cash Flow Rulesare 10 rules for less worry, doubt or concern about your organization. Implement them immediately to manage the way you do business to the best of your ability.

1. Never run out of Cash: Commit with your all to the work it takes to ensure this doesn’t happen to you.

2. Cash is King: Cash is what keeps your business alive. Give it the attention it deserves.

3. Know the Cash Balance right now: With inaccurate information, even the most experienced of people could make a business decision that impacts negatively.

4. Do Today’s Work Today.

5. Either You do the Work or Have Someone Else Do it. You just have to get the work done, so those are the only choices you have.

7. Know What you Expect the Cash Balance to be Six Months from Now: This answers the question: do you manage your business, or does your business manage you? Use the necessary tools to forecast out this information and take advantage.

8. Cash Flow Problems Don’t “Just Happen”: Always know the answer to #7. You would be surprised at how many failed-business owners had no idea there was a cash flow problem in time to fix it.

9. You Absolutely, Positively, Must have Cash Flow Projections: They answer all of the important questions from the above rules.

10. Eliminate Your Cash Flow Worries!: Be free to do what you do best– take care of customers and make more money. Efficiency is the real key to success in business. You don’t want to be worrying about cash flow and ignoring what you should spend the most time on. Always focus on making your business better and use your talents to do what you are best at.

Analytics can challenge your organization. Data is so abundant that the complexity and confusion of it all can be overwhelming. When you sit down and try to analyze everything, you just don’t know where to start, or where to go. But Narendra Mulani, the senior managing director at Accenture Analytics has some sage advice: recognize what is important & what your analytics should be doing for every aspect of your organization.

If even that seems overwhelming, there’s one more step—simplify. “Pursue a simpler path to uncovering insight:”

1. Accelerate the Data: “Fast data = fast insight = fast outcomes.” When an environment is created that accelerates your data, your organization can manage that data much quicker. Getting the data you need in real-time improves many aspects of your business.

2. Delegate the work to your analytics technologies with

Next generation Business Intelligence & Data Visualization

Data discovery

Analytics applications

Machine learning and cognitive computing

3. Recognize that each path to data insight is unique. With data, elements are always changing and new obstacles come into play that challenge your data. There will always be new questions, and different answers that solve the dilemma of each question. “No matter what combination of culture and technology exists for a business, each path to analytics insight should be individually paved with an outcome-driven mindset.”

By taking these three steps, your analytics strategy will be simplified and so will the way your organization is run. It’s rare that simplicity can seem like it is enough, but with your big data and analytics processes, simple is beneficial.

The key to any successful professional services organization meeting their financial objectives is the management of all revenue and cost information. The core financial management solution is the hub of all of this information. It must provide an infrastructure where costs and revenues can be easily be analyzed and where key members of the executive team can drill down to better understand areas of success in areas of improvement.

There are Five Key Performance Indicators that offer that infrastructure for greater financial success for professional services organizations:

Annual Revenue per Billable Consultant

Annual Revenue per Employee

Billable Utilization

Project Margin

Project Overrun

Professional services organizations must continue to focus delivering high-value and high-margin services in order to meet profit objectives. These five KPIs give organizations the ability to do that. It can be overwhelming to stare at your profit objectives and fear you may not meet them, but tracking these core financial metrics will make meeting profit objectives seem easy and exciting.

BI Solutions that eliminate the complicated use of spreadsheets create stronger, efficient organizations. In the last post I shared that the use of a business intelligence tool eliminates spreadsheet errors and creates confidence in numbers.

FIF9 conducted research with YouGov and obtained empirical data about just how detrimental making an error in a spreadsheet can be to your business. It is understood that many people feel safe in familiarity. Where spreadsheet use may be complex, changing our ways can be equally as taxing. This study shows the negative effects staying in the “spreadsheet comfort-zone” can have on your organization. More notes and statistics on the use and abuse of spreadsheets can be found in the F1F9 study here.

The research was conducted with help over 1,200 UK-based senior managers

Data supports what we see in the market everyday: spreadsheets play a critical role in business decision making globally.

With a statistic like “17% of large business suffered financial loss due to poor spreadsheets,” it is necessary to read about an alternative solution. After all, 78% of British businesses say that key financial decisions are supported by spreadsheets.” As easy as it may be to stay safe, making a change in your processes can be exceedingly beneficial.